Jürgen Haffer (9 December 1932 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

– 26 April 2010 in Essen) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

ornithologist,

biogeographer Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, i ...

, and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

. He is most remembered for his theory of Amazonian forest refugia during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

that would have contributed to speciation and the diversification of the biota.

Biography

At the age of 13 Haffer found a dead bird with a ring and had taken it to the Berlin Museum where he met

Erwin Stresemann Erwin Friedrich Theodor Stresemann (22 November 1889, in Dresden – 20 November 1972, in East Berlin) was a German naturalist and ornithologist. Stresemann was an ornithologist of extensive breadth who compiled one of the first and most compr ...

who took time to explain to him the purpose of ringing. This made a big impression on him and it marked the beginning of his ornithological interest. He was the fourth child of Oskar Haffer and Margarete. His father was a high school teacher with a training in biology who encouraged an interest in natural history. After schooling, Haffer worked during the summer of 1951 under Stresemann before going to university. Knowing that ornithology did not offer a career, he studied geology and paleontology. He obtained a Diploma in 1956 and continued on for a doctoral degree in 1957 at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

- working on "Early heterodont Lamellibranchs of the Rhineland Devonian". He obtained employment with Mobil Oil as a field geologist and went to remote places like lowland Colombia and lived in South and North America,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. During his stay in Colombia he met Maria Kluge, a teacher in Bogotá with an interest in Amazonia, marrying her in 1959. During this time he studied the bird faunas of

Amazonia The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

and Iran. In close communication with

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...

Ernst Mayr since the early 1960s, Haffer formulated his ideas on the diversification of birds and the effects of barriers. In 1978 Beryl B. Simpson and Haffer published their analysis of speciation patterns in Amazonia. From his studies on the Amazonian

avifauna Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight s ...

, Haffer authored several papers on

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

ornithology and devised his Amazonian refugia theory to explain the rapid diversification of the Neotropical fauna in Pleistocene times. He used the toucanet of the genus ''

Selenidera ''Selenidera'' is a bird genus containing six species of dichromatic toucanets in the toucan family Ramphastidae. They are found in lowland rainforest (below ) in tropical South America with one species in Central America. All the species have g ...

'' to explain speciation using the idea of refugia. Haffer's scientific output was substantial, with some 200 scientific publications. Haffer wrote the first book-length biography of Ernst Mayr and co-authored a biography of

, Mayr's teacher and friend. Haffer's foreword on species concepts is included in volume 4 of the Handbook of the Birds of the World. He also wrote extensively on the history and development of ornithology. In 1975, he was awarded the William Brewster Memorial Award. In 2013, Haffer was commemorated with the newly described Campina jay, ''Cyanocorax hafferi''.

References

Sources

* Haffer, Jurgen (1969)
Speciation in Amazonian Forest Birds
''Science''. Vol. 165:131-137. {{DEFAULTSORT:Haffer, Jurgen 20th-century German biologists 20th-century German zoologists German ornithologists Biogeographers 1932 births 2010 deaths